Winter Garden Installation

Two days ago I lent a hand to my good friend Christian in building his first vegetable garden. Because of the lateness of the season, his initiatory gardening adventure will be of the over-wintering variety.

Christian just moved into a quaint, old (1920's) rented home that sits atop a bluff alongside the Puget Sound. His proximity to the water could offer the added benefit of slightly warmer temperatures in winter. To begin construction, we first designated a spot, southwestern facing, that receives the most sunlight for the longest part of the day. Lacking a tape measure (which I forgot to bring) we used a flattened cardboard box to measure out the basic shape of the garden, which we estimated at about 4' X 10'.

Christian gloves up

Next we dug a line to form the perimeter of the garden, and then began to dig up the grass. This is the most labor intensive aspect of the installation, though it was ameliorated by the fact that the grass was dry and dirt separated from the roots quite easily. The removed grass will be used to start a new compost pile and, after it is decomposed, returned to the same soil to fertilize the ground. Cycle of life.

Christian's friend Steve(at left) stopped by to lend a hand as well.

As this is garden installation on a budget, we made due with the soil that we found beneath the layer of grass, which, all things considered, was not all that difficult to work with. With the exception of one large, head-sized rock, only moderate sized stones were found and subsequently pulled from the new bed.

Christian pulls the last of the sod from the bed

Once the bed was cleared of grass and rocks, compost was added to amend the soil and prepare it for the next phase.

Christian looks over the dark, rich humus of the added compost

With the addition of a thin layer of compost, we were ready to plant seedlings and seeds in the final step of installation. We first planted a chocolate mint and dill plant at the southern end of the garden, which will be reserved for herbs. Three broccoli seedlings (which I started indoors a couple of months ago) followed the placement of the herbs. The remaining space was sowed with seeds of various overwintering vegetable and greens varieties: collards, kale, arugula, endive, spinach, beets, carrots and leeks. Each row is marked with a small stick at either end and a diagram was drawn up so that we can be sure of where each variety is planted.

Christian and I pose behind the planted garden

The seeds will have a good month-plus to get established before seasonal temperatures begin to drop, which should be an adequate amount of time for them to get set. As long as there are no continuous below-freezing days this winter, the plants will continue to grow, albeit very slowly, until temperatures begin to increase in the spring.

Fall crops sprouted

The few rows of fall crops I planted a couple weeks ago are making full use of the summer sun. All three rows (carrots, leeks, and spinach) are thriving in the August heat. I tried a slightly different method when planting this time. After making a small furrow in the dirt, I lined the row with moist peat moss. Peat moss retains water well, so I figured it might be worth a shot to plant the seeds in the moss with the hope that it would keep them moist better than plain soil. Moisture and warmth are key to getting seeds to sprout. Hard to tell just how much it increased the rate of germination, and how much can be attributed to the heat. Regardless, the germination rate was a lot higher than I expected. I certainly had more carrots sprout this time than when I sowed them earlier in the season in only soil.

Carrots reaching for the sun

The eggplant planted in the cold frame has a nicely developing fruit and a couple blossoms ready to bloom

Dry days

Today the Seattle area tied the previous record for consecutive days without rain for this time of the year (May-June), with 29 straight days without so much as an isolated sprinkle. For the garden, it's a blessing and a curse. The long hot days have rocketed my plants into top form, with most blossoming or at least showing buds or getting ready to flower. It's only a curse in the sense that the water table is being continually lowered without the usual rain to recharge it. And really, it's not a curse, it just means I have to be adamant about watering. For once I'm actually hoping it will rain! Some pictures of the plants' progress in recent days:

These peas will be ready to pick tomorrow or the next day.

The quinoa is doing great! This is one experiment I'm glad I undertook. The plants are nearly two feet tall already. They should reach a height of about four feet and then will begin to produce seed clusters. According to the research I've done they won't be ready to harvest until after the first frost, at which time I'll cut them down and hang somewhere cool to dry.

The tomatoes inside the cloche are nearly to the top of it already, and readily blooming. Their cages are nearly hidden by the abundant foliage. The slightly hotter temperature the enclosure creates seems to be doing the trick.

Another cloche success story: black eggplant. This is definitely the largest I've ever got an eggplant to grow before, and it trumps the ones I grew last year (which hardly grew more than 8" tall and didn't fruit whatsoever). This one is over a foot tall.

A casualty of the consistently hot weather has been the spinach. I should have planted this crop much earlier than I did, as the high temps have prompted it to bolt (grow spindly and go to seed). I have been able to harvest a sizable amount of the leaves, however, and have been chopping off the tops of the plants in hopes that it will force the plant to shoot out more vegetation and cease flowering.

Fresh greens

The weather these last weeks has been unbelievably good. Too good to be true, almost. Only the garden seems to appreciate it more than me. Had a fresh picked salad today with the first broccoli head, spinach, chives, cilantro and the spicy greens that grew of their own volition (probably from the compost Aaron and I spread).

Nothing but good eating from here on out. Before long it will mostly be a matter of keeping up with it all. A pic of the garden from today.

Also planted a row of peppers, as well as several inside the cloche. A special thanks to my friend Erik for all the different pepper seedlings: ancho, jalapeno, golden bell, purple bell and poppers.

Garden Installation

Today I planted a garden for a friend's mother. The plot was formerly a lawn, but had been dug up (at least a year) prior. Here's a shot of the space before I got my hands dirty:

Overall a good space with direct sun all day that required minimal labor to get started. I turned the soil, as it had become compacted from our usual Northwest winter rains. The garden is triangle shaped, probably around 150-200 square feet. I planted rows of spinach, carrots, bush beans, snap and snow peas, tomatoes, and a small herb garden consisting of cilantro, basil and parsley.

Here's what it looked like after 4 hours of work. I managed to finish just in time to get out of the rain (which lasted pretty much the rest of the day). A great way to spend the morning and early afternoon (and make a little money on the side). With any luck I'll be doing this sort of thing more often in the near future. The Urban Grown garden installation service, a pipe dream now, but maybe someday...

Spring Rains...Sprouts!

This past week has seen the sprouting of the various seeds I sowed recently. Have a look:


Top: Beans Bottom: Spinach

Top: Broccoli Bottom:Peas


All seem to be doing well, with the exception of a few beans who had their tops munched off by some of the local fauna. Today I hope to plant a few tomatoes outside, as well as sow some rows of carrots, onions, basil and cilantro. Though it may be a bit early for the tomatoes, a few of the plants have grown leggy, and so I will have to take a bit of a chance setting them out early. I don't think upping the pot size at this point will benefit it much. Here's hoping they adjust adequately. Before the peas and beans get too large I will be constructing trellises for them to climb.

Sowing Seed

Some mild, partly cloudy weather today, perfect to begin sowing seeds in the garden. Though I likely should have done it earlier (as peas love cooler spring temps), I sowed two rows of peas (pole variety) at the western end of the garden. Next to them I planted a half row(6 feet) of pole beans and a half row of runner beans. At the other end of the garden I sowed a row of spinach seed as well as the broccoli seedlings that have been chilling in the cold frame.

Broccoli in its new home.

For each of the seeds, I followed the sowing directions explicitly, something I neglected to do last year which to crowding and most likely smaller yields. Between the rows of peas and beans, I left at least 2 feet. As these are pole varieties (they are indeterminate and will require some sort of trellising), I tried to plant them to the far end of the garden to hopefully prevent them from shading smaller vegetables nearby. The fact that the rows are oriented north-south should prevent shadows for the most part anyway...

Plant far more seeds than you intend to ultimately grow, as you will be able to thin once the seedlings have grown a couple of inches and a couple of pairs of true leaves. The broccoli plants are spaced 18" apart. The soil can be filled all the way up to the cotyledon leaves. With transplants and seed sowing, be sure to pat the earth down around the plant or the top of the row with your palm. This restores capillarity to the soil, which will help the area around the seedling stay moist and encourage germination. After planting all the seeds and broccoli, the rows are watered are labeled so the different varieties won't get mixed up (and so my roommates don't step on them). Also this was my first opportunity to use water collected from the rain barrel, which was pretty neat.

A (short) planting list of the garden so far:

-Peas (Snow peas and Super Sugar Snap peas, both pole varieties)
-Beans (Scarlet Runner and Rattlesnake pole)
-Spinach (Bordeaux Hybrid)
-Broccoli (Early Green)